New to Chickens

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Marine JAG

Marine JAG

Hatching
10 Years
May 25, 2009
3
0
7
Mine Run, VA
Hi! My wife and I have been raising horses for the past 12 years and decided out of the blue that our farm needed some chickens. We bought three Australorps and two Phoenix chicks. The largest of the Australorps which was about four weeks old, we named Victoria because the farm we bought her at told us she was a hen... well, Victoria is now Victor.

With only the five chickens, I went about building them a home so they wouldn't have to continue to camp out in my garage (which is where the lived the past four weeks). Here is a picture of my chicken tractor/coop (it's a five door hatchback).

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We wanted a couple more hens as opposed to more Victors so we bought some older (almost ready to start laying) hens this weekend (six to be exact). The chicken tractor barely fits all 11 birds at night so I need something a little bigger.

I'm in the Marine Corps so I normally don't have a lot of free time during the week to work on new projects around the farm. Our farm is well over 100 years old and has a really old out house. The outhouse is kind of unique in that it is a two seater.

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Since we have been using it for nothing more than raising spiders and wasps and storing old junk (like the sat dish in the photo), the wife and I decided that I will convert the outhouse in the our new coop. I'm hoping all I will have to do is add a chicken door and a nesting box... but I'll be looking for advice from all you experienced chicken lovers.

We live in Virginia and have a four year old boy who, so far, loves the chickens... or at least chasing them around.

That's about all for an introduction...

--William
 
Welcome to BYC from NC. You know, what I have learned from this site and from locals hanging out at the livestock auction has really helped me over the past 5 months since we got chickens and ducks. I'll share some of what I wish I had known before I started. Chickens cannot lock their claws so give them a shelf to roost on at night (simple but I didn't know). I made nesting boxes out of old dresser drawers and painted them several different colors (no $$ investment). The chickens have their favorites so you'll find they may fight to get into the one box to lay (have 6, use 2 - go figure). I took the advice from this site and use pine bedding in the boxes because it's cheaper than straw or hay (much less waste). We also feed back the washed, baked eggshells to our laying hens instead of oyster shell. Works great and it makes for faster compost for the garden. And chicken/duck compost is wonderful for tomato and pepper plants. You've got a great building there to use and you'll find once you get your flock settled, they require much less attention than dogs. I'm still waiting for my terriers to earn their keep.
 

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